Originally posted by: jeffb120374

Hello, I've done some research and need an explanation of what I'm seeing in my smit.script for root installing the Bash shell:

eval /usr/lib/instl/sm_inst installp_cmd -a -Q ${ARGS:+$ARGS}
preprocess_inuwpar -d '.' -f 'bash ALL  @@R:bash _all_filesets' '-p'   '-g' '-X'  '-G'   '-Y'   '-M'  -k '_all_wpars'

What does the ${ARGS:+$ARGS} mean, specifically the ":+"? Thank you in advance.

Originally posted by: AncientAIXer

That is a shell parameter substitution.  What it means is that if $ARGS is set and not null, evaluate the expression as $ARGS (the second occurrence), otherwise evaluate as a null string.  I'm not sure why they use it here, but it is useful in usages such as:

print ${X:+$Y}

so that if $X is set, then print $Y.